No one could have anticipated just how successful GTA Online would become. It would eventually be home to over 2.7 million monthly players, raking in $1 billion in revenue for developer Rockstar Games annually. Despite its success, the game comes at the expense of any offline components, leaving some players unable to experience it. But according to a recent leak, Grand Theft Auto 6 might rectify this, finally returning to its roots by releasing single-player updates.
GTA 6 will expand over time
According to GTA insider Tez2 (as relayed by GamesRadar), GTA 6 will expand “over time” and will go “back to how [Rockstar was] planning future content before GTA Online success boomed.”
GTA 6 will apparently feature “new cities and missions,” expanding on the single-player mode, with the possibility of “fully-fledged” cities being added later on. Tez2 says Rockstar is planning the DLC well ahead of the base game’s launch.
If true, this could allow Rockstar to have its cake and eat it, too, appeasing both of its audiences, including those who enjoy online multiplayer and those who prefer offline single-player modes.
With the success of GTA Online, there’s no reason to scale back its development. Instead, the logical move is to focus on a separate single-player component in addition to — not instead of.
Of course, this hasn’t been confirmed by Rockstar, but given the insider’s track record, we’re inclined to believe the rumor.
Back to an emphasis on single-player
The GTA series used to focus exclusively on offline components, dating back to the original release in 1997. Then, Grand Theft Auto IV introduced an online mode that was — in many ways — the foundation of what would become GTA Online.
But at the same time, GTA IV also included a beloved set of DLC add-ons: The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony.
This DLC was critically acclaimed for including gameplay improvements from the base version of the game, along with beloved stories that offered more context, while also standing on their own.
In fact, the DLC was so good, Rockstar had plans to add additional single-player expansions to GTA V in the same vein — that is, until GTA Online hit the ground running, shifting the focus away from any planned offline add-ons.
Sure, GTA Online featured its own additional story expansions, but they never felt captivating in the same way GTA IV’s DLC was. Thankfully, it seems like this will change with the release of GTA 6.
It’s unclear if GTA Online will be integrated into GTA 6 or if it will continue to be its own thing. At this point, Rockstar has a lot of questions to answer, but given the supposed development time frame for GTA 6, we likely won’t learn more about it for a while.
